The Old Man and the Sea

The epic struggle of a lifetime. When it is you versus the world. Life versus death. The fight burning and raging inside you. The will and determination to maintain discipline.

Santiago and I share something in common, we both felt those same universal themes. While Santiago was putting it all on the line for the ultimate catch… I was trying to get through this book. (Yeah that’s pretty dramatic on my part haha)

I respect this novel for what it’s done and the themes that are so prevalent, but I just didn’t enjoy it that much. The prose felt off to me and it did not keep me hooked. I found myself losing interest and having to reread some paragraphs that I daydreamed through. The saving grace was the length. It was short enough that I could power through it extremely quick. If I learned anything from ol’ Santiago, it’s that you can’t quit when the going gets tough.

It’s not actually as bad as I’m making it out to be. You can finish this story easily in a day and learn some things about the human spirit. I’ve moved onto another fantasy novel after this though…

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33 thoughts on “The Old Man and the Sea ”

This is so random of me to comment but I have to tell you that I just came across your blog and that I love it! Honestly, you have a lovely website here and I am so happy I have discovered it! I am going to follow you so I can keep up to date with all of your posts. Keep up the great work!

I once taught this book to a class of 11th graders at a rough school. It became a joke between all of us how D-E-A-D-L-Y the book was..It surely made them behave for me, though. “Stop teaching this! We’ll do anything!” Ha! Next up, Catcher in the Rye…they loved that one. Especially Sunny the teen prostitute and the pimp. They loved how gangster Gatsby was, too. But I couldn’t sell them on Old Man and the Sea. I guess that’s par for the course in a school that had an office for the resident probation officer. There were more home detention ankle bracelets strutting through the halls than team jerseys. I loved it there…they were great kids when you accepted them with open arms and an open mind.

I love this book and even have a character in my novel Polishing Jade reading it as a metaphoric piece to showcase her own wiles.
The movie was really good as well. If you weren’t a big fan of the book, pull up the movie on YouTube or Kodi and take a gander.
I think due to getting sick with Multiple Sclerosis and losing my health and home and everything that defined me as a person, and in spite of dropping out of college due to being in a wheelchair at the time and too sick to complete my degree, I am now working on my 7th book because I’m going to keep writing and the old man is going to keep fishing!

I remember having to reading this in 11th grade immediately after reading *Moby-Dick,* It was heaven after being stuck with Melville for a month. Sorry you didn’t enjoy it so much. It can be kind of dull and drawn out, but on the other hand, that’s might be part of the point, right? Since Santiago suffers for a long period of time, wouldn’t it be cool if Hemingway means for the reader to get a feel of being in “the long haul” right along with him?

I read this one in high school and it was a gold mine for the style of reporting my English teacher gave high marks on. I enjoyed it then but I found the lack of any sort of chapter break up to be disconcerting. I like to take breaks after a few chapters in any book but there just want any good places for that. Other than that I enjoyed the read. It themes provided me with ample A+ material, but I also feel like it’s a book that isn’t for everyone. Nice review.

Chaz, I should expand my limited knowledge of current fantasy and read your reviews of the books that’re in your wheelhouse, but I couldn’t resist finding what a contemporary young reader made of hoary ol’ Hem’s classic. No, not the material you’re accustomed to, and perhaps the boss was reaching a little hard for universal themes, sweeping thoughts about humanity, etc. etc. I’ve read most of Hemingway, and this is in the envelope, but not really his core strength. Glad you tried it. Appreciate the pun that it didn’t hook you. Thanks for the like on my 2017 reading list. Cheers.

My psychiatrist told me this book was a ‘masterpiece,’ he doesn’t read much (I think he might be Dyslexic) but this was one of the few books he recommended to me. I’ll probably read it sooner or later, I might end up not liking it but at the very least it’s really short. 😉

It. Well, if you knew about the man it might have made a deeper impact. Constant dreamer. Instant success. The suicide. That, life taking was very frowned upon on our newly plastic America. This came out during a recession so…I think many men identified with the main character.